Cybersecurity articles

What is Essential 8? The inception of the Essential 8 aimed to foster robust security and operational protocols among Australian government bodies, departments, local councils, and other entities operating in the public domain. Many private enterprises consider the Essential Eight an advantageous starting point for evaluating security measures and establishing a fundamental groundwork for cybersecurity. The custodianship of the Essential Eight is under the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) purview. What are the eight mitigation ...

Did you know Australians report a cybercrime every 7 minutes?  The surging increase in cyberattacks appears to dominate each news cycle. If you feel like it never stops, new data from the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), the Australian Signals Directorate cyber spy agency branch coordinating our response to cybercrime, supports your view. In the most recent reporting period, ACSC received more than 76,000 crime reports. And there only the cybercrimes Aussies chose to report. ...

Imagine you've stepped out for your morning coffee. After a frantic morning of back-to-back meetings, you're in a hurry, so you duck quickly into the café across the street. But, as you go to tap your smartphone to pay, it pings. Another email from your boss. It's marked urgent. Swiping away the notification, you're curious. He is out of town at a conference. As you idly wait, you decide to open the email. Your boss ...

Living in a cosmopolitan city like Melbourne, getting complacent is easy. We have had a challenging few years during the pandemic but living in Melbourne, or Australia more broadly, we are a lucky country. That's not to say we don't have our issues and are not immune from threats ranging from natural disasters to cyberattacks.  As you know, Melbourne has experienced two earthquakes in the last few weeks. Fortunately, they have not caused widespread damage ...

You've undoubtedly found yourself in a fire drill when working in a tall office building in Docklands or along Lonsdale Street. You understand how it feels when you hear the first beep, beep, followed by the whoop, whoop. So you know, by working on the 19th floor... it will be a long way down the emergency stairs to the marshalling point.  But here's the thing, practising an evacuation saves lives, and all employees should participate, ...

A client sent me an email from Dubai International Airport. He was very proud of himself as he had worked out how to get onto the Wi-Fi without any support. He even sent me a screenshot of the Wi-Fi connection he was on. I could see straight away it was an open connection, and he was at risk of exposing his data to others on the same Wi-Fi. A quick phone call and we had ...

Over the years, we've received the odd phone call from a prospect. Each time we answer it and hear the question, it sends shivers up my spine. "Our server has died, and apparently, we don't have any backups. Can you help us?" This is the worst-case scenario for a business and a challenging conversation. We want to help, but there's not much we can do. It's heartbreaking. As a business, your data is one of ...

A quick peek around your home office will uncover a range of gadgets and tech purchases made over the last few years. When we were all stuck at home, you may have invested in new Apple AirPods, upgraded your TV or finally set up your desk with a second monitor to avoid hunching over and squinting at your tiny laptop screen. Perhaps you even put a TV in your home office to watch the footy ...

There has been much discussion recently about Melbourne's local councils introducing changes to rubbish bin collections, including the introduction of a new bin for glass.  So, many households will now have four bins to sort and put out each week.  Depending on where you live, some councils have floated only a fortnightly collection for garbage (aka. the 'red bin'). But for all the talk of sorting, recycling and doing your bit to reduce landfill, no ...

The volume of app notifications and messages we receive daily makes it easy to feel helpless. You'll remember during the lockdowns how much time was spent at your computer on Zoom calls, while your smartphone was reminding you of your next meeting, all the while trying to homeschool.  You might have thought things would return to normal. But instead, there continues to be a rise in the number of apps and web tools you need ...